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A Babylon Calendar Treatise: Scholars and Invaders in the Late First Millennium BC Frances Reynolds (Shillito Fellow in Assyriology in the Faculty of Oriental Studies, and Fellow and Tutor in Oriental Studies, Shillito Fellow in Assyriology in the Faculty of Oriental Studies, and Fellow and Tutor in Oriental Studies, St Benet's Hall, University of Oxford)

A Babylon Calendar Treatise: Scholars and Invaders in the Late First Millennium BC By Frances Reynolds (Shillito Fellow in Assyriology in the Faculty of Oriental Studies, and Fellow and Tutor in Oriental Studies, Shillito Fellow in Assyriology in the Faculty of Oriental Studies, and Fellow and Tutor in Oriental Studies, St Benet's Hall, University of Oxford)

Summary

This volume publishes in full for the first time all known cuneiform manuscripts of an Akkadian calendar treatise composed in Babylon in the Late Babylonian period. Hand-drawn copies of the clay tablets in the British Museum, a composite edition, and a manuscript score, are accompanied by a contextualizing introduction and detailed commentary.

A Babylon Calendar Treatise: Scholars and Invaders in the Late First Millennium BC Summary

A Babylon Calendar Treatise: Scholars and Invaders in the Late First Millennium BC: Edited with Introduction, Commentary, and Cuneiform Texts by Frances Reynolds (Shillito Fellow in Assyriology in the Faculty of Oriental Studies, and Fellow and Tutor in Oriental Studies, Shillito Fellow in Assyriology in the Faculty of Oriental Studies, and Fellow and Tutor in Oriental Studies, St Benet's Hall, University of Oxford)

This volume publishes in full for the first time all known cuneiform manuscripts of an Akkadian calendar treatise that is unified by the theme of Babylonia's invasion. It was composed in the milieu of Marduk's Esagil temple in Babylon, probably in the Hellenistic period before c. 170 BC. Esagil rituals are presented as essential to protect Babylonia, and specifically Marduk's principal cult statue, from foreign attack. The treatise builds the case by drawing on traditional and late Babylonian cuneiform scholarship, including astronomy-astrology, accounts of warfare with Elam and Assyria, battle myths of Marduk and Ninurta, and wordplay. Calendrical sections contain an amalgam of apotropaic ritual against invasion, astrological omens of invasion as ritual triggers, past conflicts as historical precedent, divine combatants representing human foes, and sophisticated exegesis. The work is partially preserved on damaged clay tablets in the British Museum's Babylonian collection and the volume presents hand-drawn cuneiform copies, a composite edition, and a manuscript score. A comprehensive contextualizing introduction provides readers in a range of fields - including Assyriology, classics and ancient history, ancient Iranian studies, Biblical studies, and ancient astronomy and astrology - with a key overview of topics in Mesopotamian scholarship, the manuscripts themselves, and their language and orthography. A detailed commentary explores how the treatise aims to demonstrate the critical importance of the traditional Esagil temple in Babylon for the security of Babylonia and its later imperial rulers.

A Babylon Calendar Treatise: Scholars and Invaders in the Late First Millennium BC Reviews

Reynolds should be congratulated, and readers should be pleased, to see this important text finally elucidated in print. * M. Willis Monroe, University of British Columbia, Journal for the History of Astronomy *
Dedicated readers with an interest in the composition or in Late Babylonian priestly scholarship will find the book to be an inspiring treasure trove and the starting point for much further research. * Mathieu Ossendrijver, Bibliotheca Orientalis *

About Frances Reynolds (Shillito Fellow in Assyriology in the Faculty of Oriental Studies, and Fellow and Tutor in Oriental Studies, Shillito Fellow in Assyriology in the Faculty of Oriental Studies, and Fellow and Tutor in Oriental Studies, St Benet's Hall, University of Oxford)

Frances Reynolds is the Shillito Fellow in Assyriology in the Faculty of Oriental Studies, and Fellow and Tutor in Oriental Studies at St Benet's Hall, University of Oxford. After completing her BA in Classics and PhD in Ancient History and Archaeology (Assyriology), she held a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Birmingham and worked as a State Archives of Assyria Editor at the University of Helsinki for three years. After teaching and carrying out research in Assyriology at a range of universities in the UK, she began her permanent appointment at the University of Oxford in 2006.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter Bibliographical Abbreviations Selected Conventions INTRODUCTION 1. The calendar treatise and Mesopotamian scholarship 2. Topography: Babylonian cult and warfare 3. Manuscripts of the calendar treatise and the Mu%s=ezib family 4. Language and orthography EDITION Table of manuscripts Previous publications Calendar treatise: composite edition MS A colophon and MS C vi: edition Calendar treatise: manuscript score COMMENTARY 1 i 1-12: [Nisannu (day x)] 2 i 1'-7': [Ayaru (day x)] 3 i 8'-23': Sim=anu 4 i 24'-35': Du'=uzu 5 ii 1-3: [Du'=uzu] or [Abu (day x)] 6 ii 1'-13': [Abu (day x)] 7 ii 14'-iii 8: [Ul=ulu] 8 iii 9-15: Ta%sr=itu day 6 9 iii 16-26: Ta%sr=itu day 8 10 iii 27-30: Ta%sr=itu day 13 12 iii 1''-5'': [Kisl=imu (day x)] 13 iv 1-41: .Teb=etu 14 iv 1'-12': [Addaru (day x)] Endmatter References General index Selective index of texts and publications CUNEIFORM TEXTS Plates 1-8

Additional information

NPB9780199539949
9780199539949
0199539944
A Babylon Calendar Treatise: Scholars and Invaders in the Late First Millennium BC: Edited with Introduction, Commentary, and Cuneiform Texts by Frances Reynolds (Shillito Fellow in Assyriology in the Faculty of Oriental Studies, and Fellow and Tutor in Oriental Studies, Shillito Fellow in Assyriology in the Faculty of Oriental Studies, and Fellow and Tutor in Oriental Studies, St Benet's Hall, University of Oxford)
New
Hardback
Oxford University Press
2019-11-12
496
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